Shaking up the design services market a la Amazon

Just as Amazon shook up the world of retail, an enterprising entrepreneur could come along and upend the world of design services.

Before partnering with a design services firm, the chip company should have assessed whether it has business acumen, competency and a proven track record of success, and references to prove all three. A sure sign of a design services firm's abilities is if it takes a solutions-based approach. That signals openness and accountability, something Amazon has as well.

During the review stage, the chip company should be provided with a detailed proposal, complete with a breakdown of activities and resources, including management overhead. The proposal should cover schedule, critical review points and all assumptions about customer-supplied data that will impact the schedule.

After eight years of assessing the market dynamics, I have concluded that the ideal design services partner should have a flexible turnkey design services model focused on fast turnaround and lower costs. Aligning the chip company's project team with the design services firm's team moves them toward the common goal of delivering a successful chip project. If done correctly, the two teams quickly become one team working closely together, communicating effectively and problem solving.

Chip companies need to reconsider their engagement policies as well. Design services firms are not job shop or contractor outsourcing providers and should not be treated as such. By treating them as a partner, they will have a vested interested in the success of the project, upending world of design services once and for all.

By giving customers more of what they want—low prices, vast selection, and convenience—Amazon.com continues to grow and evolve as a world-class e-commerce platform. Isn't that what a design services provider should offer as well?
Josh Lee is president and CEO of Uniquify Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of SoC design and IP solutions.

All this thinking assumes that the relationship between the design services firm and his customer is based a single project result; but this is not true. Both companies objectives should aligned this is for sure; they should be aligned in the long term. Re-alignment and methodology improvement shall be done over and over from project to project; not from hours to hours...
I am very curious to see what will be shake; business-to-business relationship shall be build on confidence too.

It would be great if the author write a follow up article on design services and politics.
If design service is indeed cheaper and better, it would be against the interest of the in house design team to see successful partnership with design services.

The other day I wanted to buy hair cutting scissors and searched on Amazon but there were only Chinese products and we all know they are not durable. My nephew suggested to search on Google for shops that sell professional scissors and I found the http://xtremeshears.com/ website that has the best quality Japanese & German hair scissors, it was very easy to make an order and the product arrive in only two days.